Family pic 2013

Family pic 2013

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Lyla turned 4!

Lyla had a great 4 year old birthday! She anticipated the day for months and we celebrated all week long. We got ice cream on the actual day which is an extremely rare treat for us so she loved that. We then had a Minnie Mouse party with a few of her friends. They played minnie games, made Minnie ears, had Minnie cupcakes, and did a lot of running around the house playing with each other. I can't believe it's been four years since our sweet Lyla joined our family. She has grown up a lot in the last few months and her behavior has improved. She is such a fun, energetic, determined little girl. She does her own hair most days (I try really hard not to worry about how it looks), loves to cook, is always asking to sew a dress for herself- I'm glad the she has such creative and lofty ideas and hope she always stretches herself to improve. I love my little princess!






 Allison's birthday is December 20th so we had dinner to celebrate together. We love living close to them!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Thanksgiving & Utah Time

We spent two weeks in Orem and then St George in November. It was hard to leave our flip flops home and go to the snow, but we loved spending time with family. Jared & Allison also drove up and it was fun to hang out all together. 
We went to the Dinosaur museum and the farm at Thanksgiving point. Trevor loved the pony rides. They rode them 10 times in a row, and we had to drag him away.



                            
A sweet moment when the kids settled into a chair and Lyla read a book to Trevor. Amazingly it lasted for 10 minutes!!
 We met Paul in St. George for Thanksgiving. We did some hiking together and played in the sand dunes








Kaylie and sweet Ruthie:
Lyla loved taking pictures with the girls, but Trevor wasn't so excited. They were all wearing shirts that Nana had given them and helped them make a handprint turkey on.




Snuggled in the stroller in charge of keeping the dolls clean




Alisha, Alyssa, my mom and I went to time out for women. My dad watched the older kids so I could go and it was so nice to get away and to be inspired. 
My son- playing in the dog's bed. Gross!!





We did part of our Christmas while we were together. Lyla obviously loved her singing Rapunzel doll, and Trevor never puts his talking Jake down. 






And here is my sweet little Christmas present. I just love this girl!! Her 4 months stats:
                                                                   Weight: 15 lbs 3 oz (75%)
                                                                   Height: 26.5 in (98%)
She is going to be our volleyball player! No wonder none of her onesies fit anymore!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Halloween, B-days, etc

We had a fun, warm Halloween. My friend Kjerstin gave me the idea to make a last-minute cabbage patch kid costume for Kaylie. Trevor had been excited for months to dress up as Woody, but when the day came and he realized that he could take the whole costume off by himself, that's what he did over and over. Poor Paul came home to a completely naked boy running around laughing while a mad mom chased him to dress him for the 4th time. Lyla was a perfect little Rapunzel. They loved trick or treating, except for the scary house that I accidentally walked them up to. For days they asked questions about it and asked why people would make their house so scary. Awesome mom moment- traumatizing my kids. 




We took family pictures recently- and our sweet two year old made it quite exciting. He kept kicking his shoes off and running out of the room so we would have to chase him down. I am still amazed that any of them turned out.


This was the day of Lyla's first primary program in Sacrament meeting. She was fairly reverent the whole time on the stand, and when it was her turn she marched right up and said her part loudly: "I'm Lyla. I'm a dancer"

We were able to swim in our unheated pool until November- we loved our daily swimming time. I have really loved living here in Gilbert so much. The summer is pretty unbearable, but I think it's an acceptable sacrifice to make in order to have a perfect winter. There have only been a few days when we had to wear jackets and shoes instead of flipflops. It makes leaving the house so much easier with my 3 energetic sweeties. I've loved being able to run year round- Paul gives me 2 breaks a week and I've worked up to just under 7 miles. I love the freedom I feel when I go out there and go wherever I want and feel the sun shinning on me. I miss zumba in my life right now but running is my true love as far as exercise goes so I'm a happy girl! :)
Lyla is such a good sister to Kaylie! She had a really hard time in the move here, and the first month I didn't know if we would all survive, but she has grown up a lot in the last few months and she is such a fun, sweet girl. I love snuggling with her and reading books or singing songs together.

Amazingly everyone was ready for church with enough time to take a picture. And Trevor didn't run away. Success!
Trevor has also been a lot better with Kaylie recently. He is so sweet and loves to hug and kiss her. We went the see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple and we went in the visitor center where we watched a new nativity movie. Both Trevor and Kaylie were on my lap and every time the Angel Gabriel appear, Trevor would put his arm around Kaylie's back and say "Look baby Kaylie! It's Jesus!"  So precious.
Oh I love my angel baby! She was about 3 1/2 months here- growing so fast!
I could resist taking a picture of my hubby surrounded by all of his electronics. :)
Paul had a fun b-day and the kids of course loved helping him open his presents.

My brother Jared's b-day is 2 days after Pauls so we had dinner and cake together. It's so fun to live close to Jared and Allison!


Back in Sept. we went to a very hot tailgate party at ASU. Paul had to drop us off while he found parking and let's just say we looked completely out of place- me pushing a stroller and carrying two hot kiddos around while everyone around us was drinking. When we finally found the MBA group Paul set up a little table to help the kids eat and then we realized he had used beer boxes- oops! We later drove by the designated DUI pickup/dropoff area: there are so many drunk drivers on game days that they have a set area to take them all.
The kids LOVE the double decker carousel at our mall. We found out there is a kids club where they get to ride for free every Thursday- so perfect.

Lyla's good friend Evra went to dance with her one day and they happened to wear the same leotard. They play well together which is nice because she lives in walking distance.